98,000 petrol cars hit in VW's CO2 emissions scandal: minister

Around 98,000 petrol cars count among the 800,000 Volkswagen vehicles found to show irregularities on their carbon emission levels, Germany's Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Wednesday.

"Among the affected vehicles, 98,000 are petrol cars," Dobrindt told parliament, a day after VW said an internal probe had found some of its vehicles were releasing more greenhouse gas CO2 than previous tests had shown.

"The result (of the internal probe) is itself unacceptable," he said.

Volkswagen was forced to launch an investigation after it admitted that 11 million of its diesel cars had been fitted with defeat devices to cheat official pollution tests on nitrogen oxide emissions.

But the probe ended up showing that the emissions scam is broader than thought -- covering not only nitrogen oxide emissions but also carbon emissions, and affecting not just diesel but also petrol engines.